Government adopts 'federal family'

Welcome back to work, Washington. While you were out, the federal government became your “federal family.”

The term, which has its provenance in earlier presidential administrations, saw a recent resurgence during the government’s handling of Hurricane Irene. Before that, the federal family gathered, with shared concern, around earthquake response.

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Administration officials said the term describes the cooperative efforts between federal agencies. It also evokes folksy images of firesides, the family dinner table and loving, exasperating familial relationships.

“Words matter, and nothing with this stuff is accidental,” said Joe Tuman, a communications professor at San Francisco State University. “‘Federal family’ softens the impression of the government by invoking the relationships we have toward one another and shared empathy, but it’s also a kind of rhetoric that is more forgiving of the record of this government.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney used the term in an Aug. 29 briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate.

“The president is making sure that all resources are available, all aspects of the federal family are focused on this,” Carney said of Irene.

“Homeland security will continue working to coordinate the federal response through FEMA, making sure that the entire federal family is working as one,” Napolitano said of the hurricane response.

Fugate told MSNBC on Aug. 26, “From the federal family, we’re all working together to support our governors and their teams.”

The rhetoric of family unity echoed a string of official releases: “Federal family continues to support response and recovery efforts,” said the White House. FEMA, after the Aug. 23 earthquake, sought to reassure Americans that, “along with the entire federal family, we are closely monitoring the situation.”

The sudden ubiquity of the federal family drew some notice in the news media. An Aug. 31 story about the phenomenon by the Los Angeles Times was reprinted by the Sydney Morning Herald, suggesting the August news cycle is as slow in Australia as it is in Washington.